Carl William Buller

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Carl William Büller , also Karl Wilhelm Büller , (born February 23, 1851 in Hamburg , † December 17, 1923 at Dölitz Castle near Leipzig ) was a German actor and director .

Life

The son of a lawyer attended grammar school in Hamburg, where he decided to become an actor after successfully participating in school performances. According to the father's wishes, however, he went in 1873, first to Leipzig to engineering study. He also took part in performances by the private theater company Thalia . The then director of the Leipzig Town Theater , Friedrich Haase , debuted Büller on April 7, 1874 as a waiter in the comedy When women cry .

His first engagements took him to Schwanebeck , Eisenach , Erfurt , Halberstadt , Düsseldorf , Halle , Zurich and Stettin .

In 1879 he was engaged by the Royal Court Theater in Dresden . There he excelled above all in the comic character subject and was the first actor in Germany to play Theodor Schmählich in Michael Klapp's comedy Rosenkranz und Güldenstern .

From 1880 he worked as a comedian at the Kassel court theater .

In 1883 he returned to the Leipzig Theater, where he worked as a director, first character comedian and operetta comedian. Here too, Büller was one of the audience's favorites. It was on this stage that he played his later star role, the theater director Striese in Franz von Schönthan's comedy The Robbery of the Sabine Women . His portrayal of this role, which made his name known far and wide and with which he will remain intimately connected for all time, became exemplary on the German stage and has probably not been played by any comedian with the same effect. He has played the same game more than 100 times in Germany, Austria , Switzerland and Russia , always with the same diaphragmatic comedy. His extremes and interludes in this piece have probably become typical and are copied by most of the actors in "Striese".

In 1889 he followed the call of the Wallner Theater in Berlin , which he had to leave again in 1891 in order to be able to satisfy the numerous guest requests that led him to the first stages of German-speaking theater over the next six years.

In September 1896 he was engaged by the German People's Theater in Vienna . There he played the Wehrhahn in April 1897 in Hauptmann's play Der Biberpelz , which failed at its first performance in Berlin, had since remained lying and only experienced its real breakthrough with this production .

After that, Büller no longer accepted a permanent commitment, but only practiced his art of representation as a guest. He is most welcome wherever he appears. Its funny naturalness, its delicious freshness, fused with a delicious sense of humor, have a sparkling effect. Every punch line hits. He disdains great exaggeration, grimaces, twisting hands and body, and glaring effects. B. demonstrates finely executed character figures that exert a delicious effect through their overall impression as well as in their details. He is never a big joker and always remains an artist even with the greatest comedy. His most popular and popular performances, with which he amused himself on his guest appearances, include his excellent characters in "Senator", "Grandmama", "Circus People", "Bräsig", "Dr. Waspe", "In the White Horse", " Children of Excellency "," One of our people "," War in Peace "," Haasemann's Daughters "," Charley's Aunt "etc., which are characterized by B'.'s magnificent, finely satirical and affectionate observation of everything human humorous parodying comedy, delighted everywhere. The extremely popular actor died after he had to sell the villa he designed in Hamburg-Groß Borstel far below its value due to inflation , at Dölitz Castle near Leipzig.

His son was the actor and theater director William Büller , his daughter was the actress Elinor Büller (1886–1944), who was friends with Gottfried Benn .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Ludwig Eisenberg : Large biographical lexicon of the German stage in the XIX. Century . Verlag von Paul List , Leipzig 1903, p. 136, ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
  2. ↑ Gottfried Benn: Briefe , Vol. 5: Letters to Elinor Büller 1930-1955 , ed. v. Marguerite Valerie Schlueter, Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1992, p. 313.

Remarks

  1. ↑ Other sources (e.g. Eisenberg) state that the year of birth was 1853.
personal data
SURNAME Büller, Carl William
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Büller, Karl Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German actor and director
DATE OF BIRTH February 23, 1851
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH December 17, 1923
Place of death Doelitz Castle near Leipzig